Greyhound

Fro www.arktimes.com

Greyhounds put in harm's way so racino can prosper

by Leslie Newell Peacock
<http://www.arktimes.com/arkansas/Articl ... or=1902515>
@eyecandypeacock <http://eyecandypeacock>

<http://www.arktimes.com/imager/southlan ... /original/
2301848/5475/cover_story1-1.jpg> Description: AND THEY'RE OFF: Southland
Park's greyhounds. - Brian Chilson

Over in West Memphis, at Southland Park, they spend hours in the dark,
pawing at metal, making money for someone else at no small risk to their
health.

But the greyhounds, their trainers say, are better off than those gamblers.
Unlike the men and women hunched over Southland's 1,000 "electronic games of
skill," smoking cigarettes and losing money in vast rooms that never see the
light of day, the dogs are doing what they love to do: Run.

Or so they say. Not everyone agrees that racing is a good life for a dog.
Greyhound advocate organizations have piled up data nationwide about poor
living conditions in track kennels and race injuries - some so severe they
require the dogs to be put down - for the fleet species. The sport itself
has lost popularity, losing out to more lucrative forms of gambling and a
growing sentiment against racing dogs. In the past decade, 26 tracks have
shut down. Some states, like Arizona, have curtailed the number of allowable
racing days. Ardent greyhound protection group GREY2K USA
<http://www.grey2kusa.org/> wrote legislation that has ended dog racing in
Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Hampshire.

Southland Park Gaming and Racing <http://www.southlandgreyhound.com/> is
one of the oldest operating tracks in the United States. Its dog injury
record compares well with some tracks (429 at Southland, 1,351 at Gulf
Greyhound Park in Texas for the years 2008-2011). Its operators and trainers
insist the dogs are well-treated and that they are doing what they love to
do, and there's an onsite adoption agency, Mid-South Greyhound Adoption
Option <http://www.midsouthgreyhound.com/> , whose customers post happy
stories and photos about their dogs on their Facebook page. The track has
economic value; it is one of the top employers in West Memphis. Subsidized
by the electronic wagers, Southland's purses have improved.

But the fact is, without the gaming, which the state allowed starting in
2006 as a way to compete with casinos in surrounding states, there would be
no track. If the games of skill could be uncoupled from the live racing, the
change in attendance and wagering, and impact on the West Memphis economy,
would be barely noticeable. People would get to gamble, Southland would get
to take their money and the dogs could become pets, running around a yard
instead of a track.

A decade ago, 15 states allowed dog racing. Arkansas is one of seven
remaining states that still do. There are now only 22 tracks (13 in Florida
alone) in operation.

Arkansas law requires that electronic gaming be located only at racetracks,
which is why gamblers have to go to the Oaklawn horse track in Hot Springs
or Southland to play Caribbean Stud or Girls Just Want to Have Fun. The
greyhounds bring in miniscule profits compared to the electronic games, but
theirs are the tails that wag the business, and what a business Southland
is: From January to April this year, $607.7 million was wagered, $173.7
million in February alone, on the electric games of skill (EGS). After a
payout of $1.23 billion in winnings in 2011, its net in 2011 was $80
million. Compare that to the handle on the dog track: $19 million for all of
2011. The Racing Commission could not provide the net, but director Ron
Oliver estimated it at about 65 percent of the handle.

Troy Keeping, Southland's president and general manager, says Southland is
bucking a national trend, describing its track as a "very viable, profitable
racing business." But some track owners - like Caesars Entertainment, which
operates the Bluffs Run Greyhound Park in Council Bluffs, Iowa - want to get
out of the dog business. The New York Times reported in March that Caesars
is losing millions of dollars each year at Bluffs Run and has gone so far as
to offer the state of Iowa, which like Arkansas ties gaming to live racing,
$49 million for the right to shut down the track.

Keeping, himself a greyhound rescuer, said Southland has a better purse
structure and better quality greyhounds than failing tracks. "I would almost
define us as a niche market," he said, with a long history - the park opened
in 1956 - and a reputation as "always one of the top tracks." He blamed the
fact that some gambling operations want to ditch their dogs on "certain
animal activist groups."

Not Tallahassee's, however. There, the Humane Society, GREY2K USA and track
owners are on the same side, trying to change Florida's law that ties poker
rooms and slot machines to live racing. The bottom line motivates the
gamers; the well-being of the dogs GREY2K.

The Arkansas Racing Commission does not require the dog track to keep
statistics on injuries, though it does require a state veterinarian to be
present during the races. Records supplied by the commission's lawyer, Byron
Freeland, show that there have been at least 23 dogs injured so far in 2012
- with fractures, tendon tears, lacerations, and one seizure. It's unknown
what treatment was given or whether any were euthanized, though records show
that one dog died at the track after it ran into a rail.

The number of dogs injured is a fraction of the 1,200 dogs kept in kennels
on the property, but too many for GREY2K, which has compiled statistics on
injuries at Southland since January 2008. According to GREY2K, there has
been an average of 8.86 injuries a month at Southland since 2008, or 452
reported injuries in 440 dogs. The high year was 2008, with 182 injuries;
there were 101 in 2009, 58 in 2010 and 88 in 2011. Most of the injuries, 47
percent, were leg and toe fractures; some suffered broken necks and backs.

In 2008 and the first part of 2009, 32 greyhounds died or were euthanized.
The track's vet, Dr. Lisa Robinson, quit keeping data on outcomes in May
2009. She did not respond to requests for an interview by the Times, so this
reporter used the GREY2K's figures to extrapolate how many dogs may have
been euthanized. In 2008, the percentage of injured dogs (182) that had to
be euthanized (27) was about 15 percent. If 15 percent of the 452 dogs
injured since 2008 had to be put down, that would mean 67 greyhounds were
euthanized over four years.

In 2007, seven male greyhounds died at Southland in a kennel. Two males
began to fight and other greyhounds got excited and overheated; the
temperature that day was 100 degrees plus. One dog died; the others were
euthanized. The track, to its credit, discontinued its contract with the
kennel operator, Washburn-Oregon Trail Kennel, for 2008.

Southland needed the EGS games to compete with the Tunica casino on the
other side of the Mississippi River; without them, it would not have
survived. Southland's owner, Delaware North, headquartered in Buffalo, N.Y.,
invested $40 million to transform the park into a racino in 2006 and is
spending another $11 million this year on an expansion that includes a new
bar/lounge area and 16,000 square feet of new gaming space.

The dog track is less well-loved. The rail that the lure - a big, white
stuffed bone - shoots around on is about 35 years old, park people say, and
the day a reporter visited - a Wednesday, the only day afternoon races are
run - a crew was at work welding and hammering on a problem spot. The
self-betting area that opens onto the track apron is dingy and a space
called the owners' lounge hasn't been swept in a few years; it is unused. A
new sewer line has been installed by the track, a strip of white concrete
and drain reveal, but it's not quite doing the job, a breeze here and there
revealed.

The second floor Kennel Club is in much better shape, with TV screens
positioned in the paying seats for race replays, a bar, the Bourbon Street
Steakhouse Grill and a small betting area set aside for non-smokers. The
small clientele ranged from well-heeled male retirees to couples;
practically no one there was under 45, except the woman at the bar.
Wednesday's race, being a matinee, isn't typical; Friday and Saturday nights
are hopping, the bartender said. There is also simulcast horse and greyhound
racing broadcast from large HDTVs on this floor as well.

Trackside, Southland racing director Shane Bolender was giving a talk to
about 20 new hires - Southland employs around 500 people - about greyhounds.
Here's what they learned: It is the greyhound's nature to run; they can
reach a speed of up to 40 miles per hour (only the cheetah can go faster).
The races are over in about 32 seconds - during which time the coursing
hounds have covered 583 yards chasing the speedy (40-50 mph) bone
("Rusty").They wear muzzles to help the judges determine the winner,
Bolender explained. (They also wear them because they have thin skin and can
hurt other dogs during play.) There are 110 races a week; 18 to 20 of those
races are nine-dog races; the others have fewer entries.

Greyhounds are only 3 percent body fat, and if adopted, owners should know
that they are healthier skinny and shouldn't be fattened up. Their diet at
Southland is meat and vegetables. They don't sweat except through their
feet, which is why they are thoroughly hosed down with cool water after
every race and why post time is pushed to 4 p.m. in July and August.

In an interview later, Bolender said the dogs are tested for drugs, just as
horses are, but that positives are rare: "I haven't had a bad test in I
couldn't tell you how long." The last positive test he could remember was
from a dog that had been fed bee pollen, an anti-inflammatory that masks
soreness, a minor violation. Half the field in every race is tested. Special
tests are ordered post-race if the results are out of the ordinary, he said,
such as "if a longshot looked like gangbusters" or if the top-rated dog runs
a bad race.

Greyhounds are trained from puppyhood to chase things. They usually come to
the track when they're a year and a half old, Bolender said. "There's a lot
of time and effort and money that goes in to get a greyhound to set foot" on
the racetrack, Bolender said, a cost he estimated at $3,500 to $4,000 per
dog. He said he'd seen buyers at the National Greyhound Association
headquarters in Kansas pay up to $60,000 or $70,000 for one "track-ready"
greyhound. The 1,200 greyhounds on the property at Southland represent an
investment of about $4.5 million, he said.

These pricey dogs are kept in 17 kennels that hold up to 78 dogs each.
They're let out for "school" at 3 or 4 a.m. a couple of times a week, for
their race or sprints, and a few other times a day, an assistant trainer
told the Times.

Their racing days are over by age 4. It's what happens then that has created
a widespread backlash against greyhound racing: Up until the late 1980s, the
dogs were routinely euthanized once they were no longer useful. There are
horror stories of dogs being left behind by their owners at Florida track
kennels to sicken or starve to death. (In 2003, the Paragould Animal Welfare
Society in Greene County found six starving greyhounds, one of them
pregnant, a dead greyhound in a racing cage, two dead greyhounds in a shed
and 15 greyhound bodies in a non-working freezer at an abandoned breeding
farm.) Though the Greyhound Racing Association frowns on it, some farms
train puppies on live lures, like rabbits, guinea pigs or chickens. Arkansas
laws on greyhound farms do not prohibit live lures, though the state's
animal cruelty laws should.

Today, the Greyhound Racing Association says, 90 percent of retired racers
are adopted. The association says on its website, www.gra-america.org
<http://www.gra-america.org/> , that its goal is to reduce the number of
greyhounds bred. However, the Association also maintains that "the animal
rights movement has never been successful in banning greyhound racing in a
state where the sport actually exists," a statement that is incorrect. The
website could be out of date, rather than intentionally misleading.

Christine Dorchak, the president of GREY2K USA, describes herself as "just a
dog lover" who happened to grow up next to Wonderland Greyhound Park in
Revere, Mass. "I knew ... these dogs were suffering. I felt compelled to
help. And standing handing out flyers wasn't going to do it." Dorchak and
GREY2K have been compiling injury statistics, track histories, policy
reports and news articles, all of which are on its website,
www.grey2kusa.org <http://www.grey2kusa.org/> .

In addition to the fact that racing dogs are injured, GREY2K objects to how
long they're confined (more than 20 hours a day), the poor quality of meat
they're fed, and the fact that the only reason they're racing, for the most
part, are that state laws tie gambling licenses to tracks. Though their
physiology is incompatible with hot or cold weather, the dogs are made to
run during temperature extremes. Dogs no longer fit to race are still put
down by the thousands every year, despite adoption programs, GREY2K says.

Do greyhounds love to run? "If you were kept in a cage for 20 or more hours
a day ... you'd bet they'd love to run," Dorchak told the Times.

Dorchak was responding to a reporter's questions based on an interview she
had had with Rachel Hogue, 25, of Memphis, a greyhound owner, assistant
trainer and professional photographer.

Hogue studied up on greyhounds when she was headed to Auburn University in
Alabama as a freshman and wanted to take a dog with her. After considering
several breeds, Hogue went for the hound. "They're a perfect breed," she
said, easy going, "couch potatoes," in fact (they are sprinters, not animals
that want to run all the time). Once she got to school, she took in a second
greyhound, a female. The female has since died, but she still has Dazzle,
her first male.

Hogue said she came to Southland after she graduated because "I wanted to
see what my dog's life was like before." She was hired to take photographs
and is now an assistant trainer for Billy O'Donnell (who, it turns out, in
2010 unsuccessfully sued the state of Massachusetts for $1 million, alleging
the law outlawing greyhound racing amounted to an unconstitutional taking of
property).

Hogue's degree is in animal science. Does she think the dogs are mistreated?
"I wouldn't be here if I did," she insisted. She said they were fed "the
best kibble," sleep on layers of padded carpeting, and get turned out five
times a day. She said if the dogs don't want to run they don't have to:
"Some dogs don't have any interest." (Times photographer Brian Chilson can
attest to that. He saw one dog with a what-the-hell attitude come out of the
box and just trot.)

Still, a dog that Hogue had been hosing down after a race collapsed on its
back legs when she brought it close for the photographer to get a look.
Hogue said the dog was tired and needed more cooling; another trainer
quickly took the dog back to the hosing area.

Hogue admires the athleticism of the dogs. She maintains that the injury
rate at the track is "less than 10 percent," and most injuries are muscular,
though data supplied by the state Racing Commission to the Times shows that
14 of the 23 injuries recorded by the state vet through March 19 were bone
fractures. The dogs are athletes, she said, and athletes get hurt.

Hogue brings Dazzle to the track for "meet and greet" on Mid-South Greyhound
Adoption days and when he sees the track from the stands he gets excited,
like he wants to race again, she said.

"These dogs are very well taken care of," Hogue said. "They're the primary
source of income for pretty much everyone out here."

That Hogue is an animal lover is unquestionable. Her photography website
(rachelhogue.com <http://rachelhogue.com/> ) features hundreds of animal
portraits: greyhounds, cats, horses, bison, the animals at the Memphis zoo.
Her greyhound, Dazzle, features prominently.

Are the greyhounds happy? "Absolutely," said Hogue. No, says Dorchak. "I
don't think dogs are happy being in cages ... being shot up with steroids to
keep them from going into heat. ... I would just like dogs to be dogs." One
of GREY2K's victories this year: "Greyhounds are again dogs in Kansas,"
Dorchak said. Kansas, the NGA's headquarters, had disqualified greyhounds
from the definition of dog in its pet protection law. That was corrected
just this month, Dorchak said. Ironically, for the NGA at least, Kansas no
longer has dog racing.

Dorchak doesn't question the genuine love the people at the track have for
the dogs. "Nobody is saying this is about a personal relationship. It's
about a standard of neglect in the racing industry, where dogs are a
commodity. They are treated as well or as poorly as the money they make for
their owners. There is always a cost-benefit analysis. The greyhound, come
one day, is going to be on the losing end of that analysis."

Update: Since the publication of this story, the state Racing Commission
released new figures on greyhound injuries at the track. From Jan. 1, 2012,
to June 12, 47 greyhounds were injured at the track, including one that
suffered head trauma and a fractured muzzle after hitting the rail with his
head on May 19.